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I posted a question on here about why people say foster care is so horrible. After reading some of the horror stories I don't understand how this could happen.

I don't understand how this could happen because it seems like foster parents have to go through alot to become foster parents. Does anyone know how this could happen. I know that they don't let just anyone become a foster parent. I was also wondering if these horrible cases took place long ago and they did not do much screening and anyone could become a foster parent. Hopefully things are tougher these days and not just anyone can become a foster parent, but I don't know.

im not too sure. i've thought about adopting or fostering later when im older so ive come across people with stories and those people always "joke" how they do it for the money and not for the children. Anybody can play the "good character" card and have what looks to be a well rounded environment...but turn out to be bad people. it is sad...but people like you and I who see the fault there should step up and do what we can to help those in bad foster care now.

Posting anon to protect the family i am speaking of, I know a wonderful couple who did foster care they had 2 of their own and took on two fosters, one of the fosters went to another home to be adopted. The couple decided to start the process of adopting the other since he was in high school and they wanted to give him a stable life and he was doing so well at their home after living with them for 4 years.

One day he was removed from the home come to find out he had been molesting their 5 y/o daughter. this happened last year, Its not just horrible for the foster kids but can be horrible for the foster family as well. there are good foster parents but once things like this happen they dont take on more children, its not worth the risk to your own children.

These kids are never in a solid situation and have many problems and even the families who work hard to help them cant always win the battle.

Answer by
Anonymous
at 3:15 PM on Jan. 17, 2010

In the state of California back in 2000 there were about six known cases of foster children dying from abuse at the hands of their caregivers. Hang on and I'll find you the link to a list of several children whom the system failed.

Answer by
Anonymous
at 3:15 PM on Jan. 17, 2010

Screening nowdays isn't much better than in the past. Some places, like big cities there are so many foster kids and so few caseworkers that they can't keep tabs on all of them. Some caseworkers just don't care, and some foster parents are just in it for the money. The good ones actually spend more per child than they take in, but if the kid is wearing rags and not eating good meals, and not properly cared for, or worse, abused, things can go downhill in a hurry. Sometimes forster care is worse than what the child suffered from the original home. There are some evil people in this world.

Answer by
Anonymous
at 3:16 PM on Jan. 17, 2010

I think it depends on the state/county that interviews and processes the foster parent applications. Unfortunately, in the majority of cases that I have read about involving abuse and neglect by foster parents, the child or children have had developmental/cognitive delays and/or physical disabilities--they're the children in the system that no one wants, so they often get placed in homes to foster parents who do not have their best interests in mind. Those kinds of foster parents take the money allotted for their upkeep, and spend it on themselves. Caseworkers are often over loaded, and do not follow up as often as they should or make surprise visits, and the children often cannot defend themselves. It's truly sad.

Website you may like to read : http://www.adopting.org/adoptions/becoming-a-foster-parent-2.html
But here is the requirement

â€¢Be at least 21 years old.
â€¢Have enough room (and beds) in your home for a foster child to sleep and keep his or her belongings.
â€¢Live in a home that can meet basic fire, safety and sanitary standards.
â€¢Be physically and emotionally capable of caring for children and have no alcohol or drug abuse problems.
â€¢Be able to pass a criminal background check and have no substantiated record of abusing or neglecting children.
â€¢Make enough money to provide for your own family, so you do not need to depend on the foster care reimbursement you receive from the state as income.

It may not be the foster parents it can be friends or relatives who visit the homes that may cause sexually abuse. I know of one case where this child has been in foster care. The child was sexually abused in foster care, is moved from foster home to foster home. This child definitely should not be in foster care but in a treatment facility which they are not doing for this child. The child continues to have major problems and it is no wonder that the child does. This child has waited for years of broken promises from his mother. This all takes such a toll on a child. I cannot ever imagine what any child goes through in foster care.

Answer by
Anonymous
at 5:45 PM on Jan. 17, 2010

Yep, they do screen people applying to be foster parents...and Reann listed the basic requirements. However it also depends on who does the screening as to how accurate and complete it is. It's really fairly easy to hide "problems" for a short period of time in order to get licensed. Let me add too, that the foster care system is set up to reunite the child with its parents...so they don't want a child getting attached to the foster parents which is why many of them are moved so often from home to home. It's to keep them from becoming too attached to their foster parents. Also a LOT depends on the individual caseworker. The caseworkers have a LOT more say in what happens to a child than they let on and a caseworker can move them any time for any reason. We had a caseworker that took 2 little girls and KNOWINGLY put them back with their mother into the EXACT same situation they had been taken out of...(CONT)